


The Price of Freedom Is Still Steep

by EireneShulah



Series: Re:Make - You're (Certainly) Not Alone [4]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Deepground (Compilation of FFVII), Friendship, Gen, Parallel Universes, characters go meta again, lonelyness, what we left behind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:13:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24244831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EireneShulah/pseuds/EireneShulah
Summary: Zack has much to say - and to ask - about Cloud.Genesis has much to reminisce.Both have much to be afraid of in the world that doesn't know itself yet.
Relationships: Genesis Rhapsodos & Weiss, Zack Fair & Cloud Strife, Zack Fair & Genesis Rhapsodos
Series: Re:Make - You're (Certainly) Not Alone [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1728199
Kudos: 9





	The Price of Freedom Is Still Steep

**Author's Note:**

> I had thought quite a lot about what we know about Genesis's (lack of) role in DeepGround rebellion and how exactly his decision not to be a part of it was any sign of being reformed. So, here's my reconstruction, that would allow the character to both cling to his ideals and show some much-needed development)))
> 
> Also, poor Zack. Whatever this business with Lifestream may be, he can't have any tangible knowledge of Cloud's fate. He knows he left him barely awake at a battlefield, that's all. I guess some truth will come out once, but that's one occasion Genesis would know to keep his thoughts to himself.

The big lab computer buzzed, trying to complete the task they've given it. Not an easy thing to do with half power supply cut (in pieces) and a good chunk of memory damaged, but that was Hojo's lab. It had all kinds of crazy failsafes. Still, waiting was as hard as it could've been.

"Let's talk?", Puppy suggested. "Like, I don't know, what did you do after we left?"

"Got caught by ShinRa and used as an asset in Hojo's side project", Genesis answers, as if it was no big deal. "But I got better."

"What happened?"

***

_Weiss is always serious; Nero is always unreadable. Both are always together._

_"You must help us", Weiss says, and Genesis nods. "You are our brother; you will be our freedom", and Genesis nods again._

_It's in his best interest to play complicit. He has never had a chance to properly recover, he is absolutely exhausted and those two have just freed him from a holding cell._

_"We want freedom", Weiss says. Which is a noble goal Genesis can well understand, so now he nods with some enthusiasm. "You will help us overthrow the Restrictors and get control over Deepground"._

_"That is not exactly what I'd call a freedom fight", which is better left unsaid but he has never been one to keep quiet._

_"Why? We will do what is our will to do, it's a textbook definition", Weiss says. "And we've let you out."_

_"Being free is a bit more than being able to force others do your bidding", he tries to explain. "Actually, the two are mutually exclusive. Any chain has two ends, and it binds the master no less than it binds the slave"._

_"You don't know slavery", Nero hisses. Does he? An image floats in his mind, a young man asking what even was loyalty in the world where people own and are owned. And another image: a mosaic of faces and voices, once as diverse as people are, then as homogenous as copies can be. Then the other voice comes, Hollander's voice ringing clearly in his ears, speaking truth for the first time since they met._

_"Yet I knew Sephiroth", he wants to say. Or: "Yes, but I was a master once and it was just the worst". Or: "But maybe I do? I was created for a single purpose and never strayed too far from it. I had hundreds of obedient clones, but I was still nothing but an instrument of others' will". "Maybe", he says instead._

_Weiss eyes him with concern. "You pretend to agree, but you never do. Why? You're in our power and you know it. You're better off being on the same page with us, are you not?"_

_"I don't want to", he says. "And you don't understand such a concept as not wanting to agree with someone stronger, do you?"_

_"It's worthless", Nero says. But Weiss contemplates his words, and that may actually be a good sign._

_"The stronger will make you agree anyway?", he says at last. "So what's the point resisting? If you're weak, you should accept it or become stronger and think whatever you want, like we did"._

_And here it is, the core problem of their planned rebellion. He may've agreed before; things ShinRa did to those ones are unforgivable and should be punished. DeepGround is waking hell nobody was guilty enough to endure. Yet those two have no intent to get out. They are content with being on top here. They plan being demon-kings in hell, not saviours._

_"Never", he says, and feels anger stirring inside Weiss. "Now, to the point. You asked me to join a freedom fight, didn't you? But what you really want is, dubious joy of having others chained even worse than you are. Which is not anywhere near what you declared as your goal, and something I shall not be any part of. Also, you can rest assured whatever happens today I will ever be a whole Universe more free than any of you. I've spoken"_

_They are stronger. Way stronger, Weiss could've probably taken on Sephiroth and won. But he has his will and his wit, and experience that far outweighs simulation training, however dire or bloody. They wait for a fight; he smiles and prepares his last flight. With no G-line cells Weiss will have no upgrades and no recruits, with no Genesis he will have no competent tactician to say nothing of a strategist._

_"Speak whatever you speak, we won't let you go", Weiss says._

_"Oh. Won't you?"._

_His trusty wing covers him for the last time. Waters are still before his eyes, faraway waters no one knows. And like water, time stands still before him, until the wind blows and the world changes._

***

"Well, you may say I rejected a noble cause and froze myself to death in a crystal made of my own mako as a middle finger to those proposing", he smiles. "Also got better, by the way. And you?"

"Don't you already know?"

Genesis shrugs. "I only know you've departed to your death that day. I felt it in my mind, in my words... _I shall return to your place to become the dew of our star's hope - offer myself in secret sacrifice,_ the Hero's journey coming to its glorious finale in a sacrifice that is greater for being unnoticed and unknown, enabling the new story to begin in the spilt blood of the old one..."

"You talk creepy".

"Poetry is a creepy thing through and through, Zachary Fair. Main reason I've always loved it so much".

"Yeah, and the world is a weird, sad place. I remember. So, Cloud's never told you what happened to us?"

"We were not that close. And if what I picked up was true, he didn't quite remember anyway. Just something about him being your living legacy".

Zack shivered. Then closed his eyes. Paused.

"Not legacy, no...won't do such thing to the guy. He had it bad enough, I won't be the second Angeal, I didn't want to", he answered with haste. "But it felt like...you know, when your entire life is pointless and just a longest stream of dumb you can ever imagine and you've never did nothing right. But then there's this guy and he lives, and he will live, and I've managed at least that much. He may be only one, but at least that one guy does survive on my watch...you know".

It was not a question and he had no answer anyway. 

"Did he...I don't know...live all right?", Zack asked. Pleaded, almost.

He could've said much. Even as far as they were with Strife the Hero, Genesis would be blind not to see weight on Cloud's shoulders and borderline despair in his eyes. Even if he were blind, there were others to point it out for him. But for once, he was careful with his answer:

"He had friends he loved above everything else and they loved him back. He had his dreams and worked to see them come true, he had a world worth fighting for. And he never wished for death, that much I know. Neither did he settle for it when choice came".

The tale of Shinentai and Geostigma was a sad one, but it had its bright moments.

"Once an enemy asked what was dear to him in this world. Cloud said, there was not a thing he didn't hold dear, so that's something for you".

Zack smiled. 

***

In this brave new world there was no DeepGround facility, no strange rumours of what happens with wounded soldiers and kids that are too talented for their own good. Yet there were oblique references to certain things connected with DeepGround, references that went nowhere and came out of nothing.

Banora White juice was a thing in this world; but trademark was different, and he had his questions about it's recipe. 

There had been no Gillian Hewley, yet there was G-line and its cells were used to create Sephiroth clones, as they were in his world.

Soldiers remembered him, but Sephiroth was sole person ever credited as Soldier General.

"You know", Zack said, "I have a strange feeling about this. As if the world itself is...unsure. I mean...ah, like with those 'possible outcomes' of people's fates! It's playing with possibilities. Testing them. Nothing yet implemented. But nothing goes to waste".

"Angeal would like that one. Waste is...wasteful, as he said", Genesis couldn't help chuckling.

"He won't. He didn't like uncertainties", Puppy argued. "And when world itself is not certain, then what is?"

Lines kept running on the wide screens, contradicting each other and plain old logic.

"Then what is, Fair?"

***

_"You can stop searching", Genesis says, his eyes locked on Strife the Hero he heard so much about. "Weiss will die soon enough"._

_Still, that one looks like a boy he was when they met before._

_"Why?"_

_"Mostly because he can't bear it", Genesis says. Strife the Hero doesn't like him, that much is quite clear. If he were Strife, he won't like anyone with a black wing, too (to say nothing of that one incident with some hair)._

_"What?"_

_"Uncertainty", he responds after a thought. "DeepGround was nothing if not very...definitive. Clear rules, set goals, restrictions and restrictors...my world is not like this. Nobody is so kind as to tell him what to think and what to do"._

_"So, you mean he can't bear being free?"_

_"Yes"._

_"That's...frightening"._

_"Yes"._

_"And offering a helping hand...giving advice...it would just be all the same", Cloud mused. "Telling him what to think, what to do. How do_ you _bear it?"_

_"I'm a cruel man, you'd say."_

_"And what do you do?"_

_"Reading. He has never read books before, real books, I mean, not textbooks"._

_"Have you tried friendship?"_

_"I'm long out of practice"._

_Cloud is silent for a while. "Take him to Tifa's place", he says at last. "They_ can _try it. Worked with me, at least"._

***

Zack shook his head and pressed the "off" button. "To hell with that, too, is what I say".

"You know...we have each other", Genesis added quietly. "I mean, all of us. Marco included".

"Yeah, I thought the same. And we have a goal, remember?"

"Best possible outcome?", Genesis smiled.

Puppy smiled back.


End file.
